Mmm…Canada – The Sweet Edition
Jennifer (The Domestic Goddess) is hosting this year the Mmm…Canada – The Sweet Edition. In 2005 she asked Canadian bloggers and non-bloggers to talk about their favorite meal, the one that really said Canada to them. This year she decided to up the ante:
This year let’s make our proverbial pot a little bigger; a little sweeter, if you will. Let’s get together as many bloggers as we can to share their favourite Canadian confection, indulgence, dessert, sweet…anything really! As long as says Canada to you and you can get some sort of Sugar High from it, we want to know about it.
As mentioned below in the Savoury Edition, I am Québec-born and bred. Quebecers are renowned for their sweet tooth. The dessert that most typifies this for me is Sugar Pie (with a name like that, how can you go wrong?). Tarte au sucre is one of those recipes that offers a lot of variations: maple sugar, brown sugar, flour, no flour, butter or not, cream, etc. Some families guard their version and pass it down generation to generation. I blogged on this last year. The full post can be found here.This entry is the most popular on my site, thanks to an incoming link from Wipedia. I never realized how many people were interested in this dessert…
Here’s the recipe I usually use. It’s foolproof and quick to prepare.
Quick Sugar Pie
(Recipe: courtesy of Mme Paquin, Trois-Rivières)
1 cup of brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon flour
Mix ingredients in bowl until smooth. Throw in a frozen pie crust and bake at 400F for 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. It tastes even better cold, the day after.
Now, living on the West Coast, my other favorite sugar high is provided by the Nanaimo Bar. You can’t beat it for a quick pick-me-up in the afternoon (followed by the inevitable crash). Here’s a recipe from The City of Nanaimo’s website:
Nanaimo Bar Recipe
Bottom Layer
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½ cup unsalted butter (European style cultured)
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¼ cup sugar
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5 tbsp. cocoa
1 egg beaten -
1 ¼ cups graham wafer crumbs
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½ c. finely chopped almonds
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1 cup coconut
Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press firmly into an ungreased 8″ x 8″ pan.
Second Layer
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½ cup unsalted butter
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2 Tbsp. and 2 Tsp. cream
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2 Tbsp. vanilla custard powder
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2 cups icing sugar
Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light. Spread over bottom layer.
Third Layer
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4 squares semi-sweet chocolate (1 oz. each)
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2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Melt chocolate and butter overlow heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.
Note: This dessert/snack also comes in prepackaged mixes for the time-pressed.
(Photo: Stephanie Spencer, Wikipedia Commons)
Jennifer 11:55 am on June 28, 2008 Permalink |
Ah, sugar pie…very few things are more Canadian than that! Thanks so much for joining in on Mmm…Canada!
Candice 10:18 pm on June 30, 2008 Permalink |
Last time I made sugar pie, it turned out a bit too runny. Next time I’m going to try your recipe! Thanks for sharing it. 🙂
madcapCupcake 7:56 am on July 2, 2008 Permalink |
TWO sweet delights – and both looks delcious 🙂
ileygilbert 7:11 pm on July 31, 2008 Permalink |
oh my gosh these all look amazing!
Mmm… Canada – The Sugar High Edition | The Domestic Goddess 6:44 am on September 18, 2012 Permalink |
[…] Bites who lives in BC but was ‘born and bred’ in Quebec, offers up her recipe for Sugar Pie. She also provides us with a great recipe for Nanaimo Bars to represent her present geographical […]